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Flexi-workers are a twist we can ill afford

'You cannot imagine how much women like me hate women like you." This salvo was aimed at me at a drinks party 20 years ago by a successful publisher and well-known childless 1970s feminist, on noticing that I was pregnant.

"You think that just because you have lovely babies or terrible teenagers you have a God-given right to leave the office any time you like, to go to their nativity plays or their parents' days, while the rest of us do your work for you and keep your lovely job warm for you, without any thanks, until you see fit to come back from your blissful maternity leave or your half-term holidays." That was her drift.

I didn't bother to tell her that I did not belong to the army of exploitative mummies she so loathed. I worked freelance and part-time from home and still do, precisely because of these